Mum’s who are card makers like nothing better than a crafty present when Mother’s Day comes around so here are a few ideas that will have your Mum smiling with pleasure.

A Die Cutting Machine

If your budget can stretch to it and Mum hasn’t already got one then a die cutting machine will probably be top of her wish list.

Of the 3 die cutting machines that Craftsite stock the Big Shot is still the best seller. It comes with all the plates a card maker needs to get them started and we include a free embossing folder so Mum can start using it straight away.

Cutting Dies and Embossing Folders

If your Mum already has a die cutting machine then you can’t go wrong by picking out dies or embossing folders for her – just make sure she hasn’t got them already.

We have two super new dies that have just come in this week – Butterfly Garden and Tulip Garden.

Both dies cut and emboss and look gorgeous mounted on a card and at only £7.99 each are excellent value.

If you’ve heard your Mum rave about the new 3D M-Bosssabilities embossing folders these are on their way to us now and will be in stock for Mother’s Day.

Card Making Kits

You’ll find we have a good selection of card making kits that would delight any card making Mum. Prices range from £3.99 to £17.99 so there’s one to suit every budget.

This Birdie Blossoms Luxury Card Making Kit comes with 2 sheets of die cut and foiled toppers and 3 A4 backing cards. There enough in this £3.99 kit to make at least 6 cards with some pieces left over to make additional cards. There’s also an inspiration sheet included in the kit making it the ideal present for some-one just beginning card making.

This Butterfly Sorbet Luxury Card Making Kit at £17.99 is a bumper pack that includes shaped cards, foiled and printed backing card, die cut and foiled toppers, ribbon and envelopes. It also comes with an inspiration sheet.

Let Mum Choose

Giving money sometimes seems like a cop out but not so if Mum is a card maker. The is nothing a card maker likes more than browsing either the web or craft shops – it is sheer joy and Mum’s will spend a very happy hour browsing before making their selection.

When it comes to Christmas present for card making addicts the top of everyone’s list for the fourth year running, if they haven’t got one already, is a die cutting machine.

Over the past few weeks Big Shots, Big Shot Starter Kits, Cuttlebugs and Grand Caliburs have all been selling equally well with maybe one machine doing better one week and another the following week but as Christmas finally approaches we have out best seller for 2012 – and it’s the Big Shot. We have now sold out of Big Shots but will re-stock in time for when we re-open after the Christmas break. For those of you who have asked for money from your nearest and dearest towards your craft items this Christmas you won’t be disappointed.

We also have a very special offer on the Big Shot Starter Kit that will run from now until the end of January 2013. The Starter Kit is now just £74.99 – a saving of £25 on the RRP.

The big advantage of the Big Shot Starter Kit is that it comes with the extended platform enabling you to use multiple dies at the same time in one pass plus the longer dies, such as the Spellbinders Shapeabilities borders from the Moroccan, Asian, and Persian Accent sets, sit more comfortably on the longer platform. So you can use the thinner dies such as the Spellbinder and Marianne dies with the Starter Kit we also include free the Solo Thin Die Adapter worth £6.49. The Solo Thin die adapter is the same length as the Solo Extended Platform that together give you more room and flexibility when die cutting. Of course, you also get the dies, embosssing folder, paper pack and instructional DVD with the Starter Kit which means you can start die cutting and embossing straight away without the need to buy anything else.

Those people who already have die cutting machines are opting for dies and embossing folders and these half been going like hot cakes. One of the most popular dies is a one that has been around for a while – the Marianne Frame LR0116. It has been a best seller since Marianne first created it and sales haven’t yet slowed down.

With this die comes 2 extra dies – 2 flourishes that card makers use time and time again. The other dies that have done particularly well are the Shapeabilities Motifs sets and corresponding Accents sets. There are 3 of them: Persian, Asian, and Moroccan and everyone seems to have their favourite.

Embossing folders make great stocking fillers for your card making friends – just check they don’t have them already. We are also having to restock on many of the embossing folders and again, for those that are currently sold out, these will be available immediately after the Christmas break.

Still with die cutting we have also sold out of the Embossing Folder and Stencil Storage Case – so handy for keeping all your dies and embossing folders in one place and at an excellent price – just £13.99. More stock of these are on their way to us.

What about those who haven’t yet taken the plunge for a die cutting machine this Christmas? Well, border punches, stamps, and particularly inks are doing very well. With the Versa Cube Ink Pads at only £1.49 a half a dozen selected colours of these makes a great stocking filler for anyone who enjoys card making. And we know that some lucky people are going to wake up on Christmas morning to find the full set of Tim Holtz Distress Markers under the Christmas tree.

It’s less than 2 months into 2012 and already the wedding season is in full swing with loads of brides, help by mum or their friends, are beavering away making their own wedding stationery.

So what are this season’s colours? According to one bridal magazine it’s neutrals. Well, maybe the Craftsite brides didn’t read that magazine because the big colour is purple, followed by turquoise, followed by baby blue. Ribbons, bows, and cards to use as accent card have all been in those colours. Although both Stardream Crystal and Stardream Opal are still very popular the biggest seller for making wedding invitations is Stardream Quartz. We have actually sold out of Stardream Quartz envelopes in both the DL and 155 x 155mm square sizes and are having to have some more made.

Needless to say Royal Purple card and paper is extremely popular both for making cards and for using as an accent colour on wedding stationery. Guess everyone must be teaming their purple or blues with silver because there has also been a big rise in the sale of Silver Mist card.

Simplicity is the key with wedding stationery and the die cut wedding words are very much is demand with perhaps just one or two embellishments. As well as ribbon and bows punched or die cut shapes are being added to wedding invitations and the 3mm pearls are flying out the door.

It always intrigues us when we see an order for what is obviously wedding stationery and we try and imagine how the bride is putting the card making components together so when you’ve finished your invitations why not send us a photo. We’d love to see them.

There’s glitter card to run through the die cutting machine, glitter peel offs in sentiments, borders and pictures – in fact - glitter everywhere. Any other time of year and it would be too much but at Christmas you can really let yourself go.

Here’s one of the Kanban Christmas card toppers that are absolutely loaded with glitter.

And if the topper or decoupage doesn’t come already loaded with glitter then add some yourself – we have 29 different shades of glitter, 15 shades of glitter glue, and 31 shades of Stickles. That should be enough glitter for anyone – even at Christmas.

Every now and again I think that everyone who does card making as a hobby must have a die cutting and/or an embossing machine but it obviously isn’t so. Our best sellers over the last 3 months have been die cutting machines and the dies and embossing folders to go with them.

Top of the list – but only just – is the Grand Calibur and the Grand Nestabilities to go with it. The best selling Grand Nestability is Labels Four because it is the one where all the dies in the set can be used in the Big Shot provided the Big Shot is used in conjunction with the extended platform, solo thin die adapter and the extended cutting pads.

As well as the Grand Nestabilities the regular Nestabilities are proving very popular especially the Lace Rectangle, Labels Ten, Labels Twenty and Fleur De Lis Rectangle. Not to be left out are the new designs from Marianne and Nellie’s Border and Corner dies.

Of the embossing folders Sun Rays, Flutterby, General Greetings and Christmas Greetings are at the top of the list.

We’ve discovered that our customers really love cottages with both the Kanban Cottages card making toppers and the Kanban Scenes card making toppers doing equally well and the best selling decoupage is Hunydory’s Cottages Decoupage.

The extended platform, called the Solo Platform, above, comes with its own shim for when that little bit of extra height is needed with certain dies to obtain a really clean cut. Its about twice the length of the multiplatform and allows you to cut multiple dies at the same time. Very useful if you make lots of cards or if you are making wedding stationery. You can also pass 2 embossing folders through at the same time using the Solo Platform.

The final part of the set is the pair of extended cutting pads which you need to make full use of the Solo Platform and Solo Thin Die Adapter.

Although a little expensive to set up, the Solo Platform and Shim and the Solo Thin Die Adapter will last your for years and the cutting pads are only a little more than a pair of standard cutting pads.

We would suggest that when the multi platform that comes with the Big Shot starts to get worn then this is the ideal time to upgrade to the Solo Platform, Thin Die Adapter and Extended Cutting Pads.

The Vagabondcomes with the Solo Platform and Shim included. If you buy your Vagabond from Craftsite then you will also get the Solo Thin Adapter included. However, it only comes with a standard pair of cutting pads and once these become worn it would be advisable to replace these with the extended cutting pads to get full benefit of the Solo Platform.

Please note that the Big Shot and Vagabond machines are wider than the Cuttlebug and, therefore, none of these plates or cutting pads will fit the Cuttlebug.

Once you start card making it’s not long before your stash of card, paper and embellishments starts to grow – and a good crafter never throws anything away.

Initially, these will be thrown in a box or drawer, or stacked on a shelf – or a combination of all 3. This is fine – until you need to look for something that you need for a current project. You know you have the exact thing somewhere but finding it is a different matter. Time to get organised. Here is what you need.

The A4 storage box is ideal for holding paper and card so that the edges don’t become damaged or the card bent. We all buy nice card when we see it for use in a future project so we suggest you have one box for new card and one for card that has been partly used in previous projects. If your stash is really large then you’ll need more boxes and it’s worth taking the time to sort them into categories for easy retrieval.

The A4 boxes are also useful for storing card making topper sheets and decoupage sheets where only one or two have been used.

Peel Off sticker sheets tend to grow very quickly as you get loads to a sheet but will probably only use 1 peel off for a project. This is especially true of the sentiment ones where there can be 18 or more of the same words to a sheet. Peel offs tend to fall into 3 categories – sentiments sheets, pictorial, and borders – so 3 boxes to start with would be sensible.

Peel off boxes are also great for storing die cuts. If you have a Cuttlebug, Big Shot or Vagabond and cut a few shapes at a time then the peel off boxes are great for storing the larger shapes.

One customer always makes up all the decoupage designs from a sheet at a time, uses one for her current project then stores the others ready made up in a peel off storage box.

With 12 little storage pots for just £3.99 you can keep all your brads, beads and tiny embellishments in one place. They even come with a storage box for the storage pots so you’ll always have them to hand. Ideal for embellishments such as padded items, small hearts, butterflies, etc.

If you have a die cutting machine such as the Cuttlebug, Big Shot or Vagabond or an embossing machine such as the Texture Boutique then this embossing folder and stencil storage case with it’s 40 pockets will keep all your embossing folders neat, tidy and ready to be used. The pockets are A6 size which fits the standard embossing folders.

If your local takeaway delivers the food in plastic boxes, wash them and use for storing larger embellishments, die cuts and smaller pieces of card.

If you buy the Woodware brads and eyeletsin the stackable boxes then once you’ve used the brads and eyelets save the boxes as these are also ideal for small embellishment such as the padded butterflies.

This month the best seller in card making (as it was in February) is the Crafty Edger – so much so that not only have we sold out but Woodware have too. New supplies will be arriving as soon as possible and in the meantime those lucky enough tohave a crafty edger are now stocking up on the cassettes.

The really big card making trend for 2011 is ribbon and lace. You will see either ribbons orlace on all sorts of card this year. Use as borders or an embellishment. The phenomenal success of the Crafty Edger is the ribbon border cassette that allows you to slot ribbon through or the other cassettes, such as the antique floral cassette with it’s lace effect edging. Other border punches with lace effect edges are also in demand.

Some card use both ribbon and lace as in this lovely baby card.

Expect to see ribbons and lace used is lots of different ways over the coming year.

These twin packs of die cut decoupage from Reddy are one of the hottest products this spring and are just flying out off the shelves.

There are 2 sheets in each pack. The large background picture has to be cut out but because of its straight edges is easy to do using scissors or a rotary trimmer. The other sheet contains all the decoupage pieces to go onto the main pictures and the are all die cut so it’s really easy card making - just use foam pads or silicon glue.